Various character products are conventionally sold and among such character products is what is known as a desktop character. This is an application that displays a character on a monitor of a PC or the like, operates according to a predetermined algorithm and displays specific speech or plays music. There is also an application that causes a character displayed on a communication terminal of a user to describe a provided service using a chat system (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-145541).
Meanwhile, conventionally, there are a communication robot that performs communication in accordance with an external sound or the like, an electronic toy that operates in accordance with an external sound or the like (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-227237 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-307354).
On the other hand, responses by such robots and toys are limited. Specifically, robots and toys can make specific responses or movements with respect to a sound. However, the robots and toys make only simple responses and do not express emotion. Therefore, it may be difficult for a user to feel familiar with such robots or toys.
Meanwhile, for such character products, products allowing users to feel more familiar with characters are desired. It could therefore be helpful to provide an image display apparatus capable of implementing communication with a specific character and allowing a user to feel more familiar with the character.